Weed for Warriors Project Calls on U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to Stop Blocking Access to Safer Medical Alternatives and the Responsible Use of Legal Medical Marijuana

Weed for Warriors Project Calls on U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to Stop Blocking Access to Safer Medical Alternatives and the Responsible Use of Legal Medical Marijuana

SAN FRANCISCO—November 11, 2016—On Veteran’s Day our country is facing an opioid-use epidemic and suicide crisis. Weed for Warriors Project, the country’s largest nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans find relief from service related disabilities through medical marijuana, issued the following statement calling on the U.S. Department of Affairs (VA) to finally stop blocking the legal, ethical and responsible use of medical marijuana and safer medical alternatives for veterans.

Brandon L. Wyatt, Esq., National Policy Advisor for Weed for Warriors Project issued the following statement:

With eight of nine states voting in favor of responsible marijuana reforms in this past election, it is clear that more Americans than ever recognize that our nation’s drug policies are a failure, which ruin lives and denying our veterans access to the best comprehensive healthcare and safer medical alternatives like medical marijuana.

While the majority of states have taken important steps forward towards implementing sensible drug policy reforms, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continues to disregard the best interests of our servicemen and women by denying them access to safer medical alternatives than opioids. To date, the VA has irresponsibly refused to take an ethical, responsible and compassionate position on medical cannabis — a plant which has been scientifically proven to be less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, yet shockingly remains a Schedule 1 substance with the likes of heroin under the Controlled Substances Act.

Weed for Warriors Project should not need to remind you that two-thirds of our servicemen and women, who return home from deployments in the Middle East, and more than half of older veterans suffer from chronic pain. In fact, today, there are about 2.7 million American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and at least 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from PTSD and/or depression.

Unfortunately for our military men and women and for those that love us, that’s not even the worst of it. Everyday, approximately 22 veterans commit suicide, which account for 19 percent of all suicides across the country, yet veterans only make up less than 9 percent of the U.S. population.

By now it should be no secret that opiates use, which has been known to intensify PTSD symptoms and increase the likelihood of opioid dependence, can have deadly consequences, especially for those veterans suffering from chronic pain and PTSD.

Ironically and unbelievably though, the VA continues to have its doctors dole out opioids to treat PTSD, even though the VA’s own researchers have admitted that opiate overdose deaths are twice as likely among veterans than the general population. How is this even possible? It certainly is not ethical, compassionate nor does it serve the best interests of our veterans or their families.

Twenty-eight states and District of Columbia have legally passed medical marijuana initiatives. It’s time that we veterans hold the VA accountable for its inaction, which is why we are calling on the VA to immediately stop irresponsibly blocking our veterans from comprehensive healthcare and safer medical alternatives like medical marijuana. The time is now for the VA to take a realistic and responsible position on comprehensive healthcare, which includes allowing veterans access to medical marijuana and compassionate care treatments — just like more than half the country already has. How much longer are you going to make us wait, VA? Don’t you own our servicemen and women more?

We look forward to you finally taking a more sensible and responsible position on medical cannabis and finally do the right and just thing on behalf of veterans.

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About Weed for Warriors ProjectWeed for Warriors Project was started in the San Francisco Bay Area by an OEF United States Marine Corps Veteran who found relief from his service connected disabilities through medical marijuana and the fellowship of other like minded Veterans within the cannabis community. Weed for Warriors Project is able to provide Veterans with medical marijuana information, a safe place to fellowship with other Veterans and safe access to free medicine with proof of service/ current medical recommendation. For more information, please visit us at Twitter @wfwp_actual, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Weed4Warriors/ or on our Website www.wfwproject.org